West Hartford Abuzz About Nighttime Hall-Conard Football Game

WEST HARTFORD — As a former school board student representative put it, Friday night football games are a quintessential part of the high school experience – one that West Hartford students haven't known until recently.

The community is buzzing in anticipation of Friday night's Conard vs. Hall game, the first night game in the rivalry's 57-year history.

Football games in town have been played under temporary lights in the past, but the Conard-Hall game is traditionally held during the day on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

The new high school field lights have been in use since late October, when Conard's McKee Stadium Field hosted a field hockey game against Hall. Hall's football team hosted Manchester High School at Chalmers Stadium Field for a packed night game on Nov. 8.

Soccer and freshmen and junior varsity football games have also used the lights.

"We get a lot more students coming to the games, that's been positive," athletic director Betty Remigino-Knapp said. "The kids all turned out to support the teams, whether it was field hockey or soccer, boys or girls. That was really nice."

But a nighttime game between the town's two teams brings it to another level.

"The Conard-Hall game is special, mostly for the way it brings people together from both sides of town," said Tom Moore, assistant superintendent for administration and a former football coach at Conard. "It's unique."

Unite for Light, the parent group that rallied for the lights and is raising money to help pay for them, still has to raise about $45,000, according to co-president Robert Macca. The group will sell commemorative programs chronicling the history of the rivalry, as well as Hall and Conard blankets, at the game.

The school board approved the lights in the spring and included $500,000 in its capital budget for them. A state education department grant will cover half, and Unite for Light promised to raise the remaining $250,000.

Macca said the lights have so far "been everything that we hoped for."

"The student bodies on both the Hall and Conard side, I've never seen attendance like that," he said. "They were coming out in droves."

But Macca expects an even bigger crowd on Friday night.

"I think we're going to get a lot of people out there," he said. "We might break the record."